Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was yet again another fun time. It was fun to have Julia be so excited about it. She was more excited to spend time with her cousins than anything else. We had to run an errand at the mall the other day and she was very disappointed that her cousins were not there. Everywhere we went there were tons of cousins so it was a lot of fun. She loved seeing Santa, aka Opa, and opening all of her presents. She is a true rocker, so she loved her keyboard and guitar from Nana and has been rocking out since Christmas day. She loved every present she got and plays with each toy every day.......it has been nice to have new toys around :-). It is crazy how fast it all went, but somewhat relieving to have it all over with. We look forward to a wonderful 2009 welcoming a new baby to our family in early March!

Christmas morning at home, opening presents

Singing with Dora

Snow White rocking out

Carlsen Christmas

Stanley Christmas

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Julia went sledding almost all day yesterday, except to eat and sleep. She had such a great time in the snow. So did Mom, Dad and Lucy :-). Below are some pictures and a video of the fun day.

Getting dressed

Julia and Lucy in the backyard

Sledding to the park, Lauren and Julia

Cheese!

Sled Time

Christmas Play

Julia went to her first Christmas play over the weekend. We went and saw a children's production of 'Twas the Night with all of her cousins. As you can see from the pictures she had a great time. The play was about 1 1/2 hours (with an intermission) and she sat still through the whole thing and stayed quiet. As a matter of fact all the kids did amazing and loved the play. She got so excited when Rudolph and Santa came on stage. She was in awe pretty much the whole time. She also got Santa pictures taken on Monday, although I forgot my camera. She didn't cry and I think they got a picture of a non-fake smile, something I cannot achieve lately! Then we went to Snowflake Lane at the mall and Julia got to see the drummer boys, Rudolph, penguins, polar bears and princess'. Once again, she was in awe and had a great time.

As I am writing this it is snowing outside, I can't wait for Julia to wake up so we can go play! I already took Lucy out in the snow this AM and she ran around for about an hour in it. Should be a fun day in the snow!

Branden, Brady, Jakob and Julia (the boys are doing "peace" but Julia is saying she is 2)

Julia has an audience

Mya and Ellie

Cameron and Wyatt

Rudolph and Santa, what could be better?!

Jim was out of town this weekend :-(, but Julia and I kept very busy with holiday related outings. On Saturday morning we went to the Cougar Mountain Zoo for the Reindeer Festival with Shannon/Danny, their kids and our friend DeAun and her little boy Logan (one of Julia's best friends). Julia got to see Bengal tigers, cougars, emu's, macaws, lemurs and of coarse the star attraction, the reindeer's. It really is a cute place, and small enough were Julia could walk the whole zoo and not get tired and still be entertained by all the animals that were there. She got to feed the reindeer apples and see Rudolph (the only male reindeer there). Saturday night we went to a friends holiday party and Santa made a trip from the North Pole to see all the kids there! She was very pleased with herself as she did not cry on his lap. She saw last years picture and how she was balling on his lap and laughed when she saw it. I don't think she understood why she was crying and told us she would not cry this year. So far, she has kept good on her promise, we will see when the official Santa photo has to be taken. On Sunday morning we went to my mom's to play. Now we are both resting before daddy comes home tonight, we are both way too excited to have him back!!!!

Riding Santa's sleigh with Cameron and Ellie

Even better, a sleigh with presents and Logan!

Rudolph

She didn't cry on Santa's lap!

The holidays are here!!!!!

This has got to be my favorite time of year :-). You just can't help but to be in a good mood around the holidays. We started off the season at my sisters for Thanksgiving. There were 16 adults and 12 kids this year, yikes! Julia had so much fun playing with her cousins. Then on Friday we headed down to Olympia to spend some time with Jim's family, and once again, Julia had so much fun playing with her cousins. Over the weekend we got our Christmas tree. In true Washington fashion, it was raining. Still fun, but a quick trip to the u-cut tree farm. We decorated our house on Sunday and Julia is in love with Christmas lights, advent calendars, stockings, etc. She begs to turn on the lights at all hours during the day. Anyway, we are loving the holidays here and can't wait to do our yearly traditions. Hope everyone is doing well.

Playing on Thanksgiving with Kate and Ellie

Tree farm: Fletcher, Lisa and Blake Ooyman

Tree farm: Julia sized tree

Tree farm: the chosen tree :-)

Recent Pictures

I thought I would post some recent pictures of Julia. Not much going on here except Julia is very excited about Christmas (just the idea of it, she has no idea she gets presents....that will be a big bonus when she finds that out). I was trying to prep her on taking her picture with Santa, as last year she cried, and I think I started prepping her a little too early. We are going on 12/1 with my sisters and their kids/spouses to get Santa pictures and since last night that I told her we were going she has asked about every ten minutes if she can go and sit on Santa's lap yet. She is reading all her Christmas books and loves to dance to Christmas music......um, the next month is going to be VERY long.

Our two princesses

I LOVE ice cream!!!!!

Julia and a friend disappeared during our moms group and were reading books with no shirts on :-)

can't really tell, but this is Julia's fat lip which she got from tripping :-(

Bath time....in her baby tub (that she hated as a baby and now has found it and loves it!)

Great Wolf Lodge

We finally decided to take the plunge and take a mini vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge. We figured we better go before the baby arrives as we probably won't be back for a few years. When I told her we were going to the water slide park she was so excited to go back to Minnesota! I had to break the news that we weren't going to Minnesota but that she would still have fun. From the moment we arrived to the moment we left she was all smiles and just had a blast. We only ended up staying one night, but were there for two whole days (plenty of time for a two year old at a water park). She was swimming (with a life jacket) everywhere. She was such a big girl. She went down the bigger slides (not the howling tornado like dad, but still the big kid ones) all by herself. I would go to the top with her and Jim would catch her at the bottom. A couple of times she did a 360 down the slide but never seemed to get scared, just wanted to go again. She loved the wave pool, slides, and play toys in the toddler area (which surprisingly she spent the least of her time). She spent her evening in the arcade, just dancing around under the black lights, never played a game. We didn't get nearly as many pictures as we wanted as the place was so wet, duh, but really buckets are constantly dumping water, people can spray you with hoses, etc. I didn't take my camera to the main slides Julia was doing as it would have got soaked. Anyway, we did get some pictures of our fabulous "vacation".

a portion of the water park, the bucket would drop 1000 gallons every 5 minutes or so

Getting ready for the water......

Riding the snake

Down the "baby" slide, this did not get her adrenalin pumping enough like the other slides

Jet-ski riding

Snack break

Nap break, she just passed out the last day before lunch

Type A Personality?

Julia has a new hobby of lining all of her toys up, all day long. And if anything gets out of order then it is very upsetting because she has to then redo the whole line. She calls them trains, but I call it taking after mommy and wanting things neat and orderly ;-). I only hope she keeps her room this clean and orderly when she is a teenager!

ABC magnets on the fridge

Farm Little People and Cinderella (she finds a way of going everywhere)

Blocks

Trick-or-Treat, Pull Down My Underwear

Julia was a little confused on how the trick-or-treat song went, so she spent the day singing, "trick-or-treat, pull down my underwear". Lovely, huh? She thought she was hilarious, so did I. I don't think that Christmas will be able to top Halloween on Julia's fun factor. She had so much fun the entire day, except bedtime. From the moment she opened her eyes, she was in her Halloween costume, a butterfly. We spent the morning around the house and then went to our playgroup, where all the kids dressed up. Julia loved seeing all of the other cute costumes that her friends were wearing. After nap we hung out some more around the house as it was still raining. It miraculously cleared up right at trick-or-treating time. We only went to about 5 houses, but each one gave us hand fulls of candy as they all knew us. Julia did well saying trick-or-treat and thank you. She did not want to come home at all. We knew that she would enjoy opening the door for all of the trick-or-treaters that we get, so we had her do that. Our neighbor and her 5 year old daughter came over to trick-or-treat and ended up staying :-). Lauren and Julia just wanted to play and answer the door, so they had a lot of fun doing that. When I took Julia to bath time she heard the doorbell ring and started balling, she just wanted to see the costumes. She is already talking about how next year she is going to be a kitty cat, we will see if that holds up......

A Beautiful Butterfly

Playgroup, this is the best picture I could get of all of them...

Off we go down the street to trick-or-treat

Julia was mesmerized by all the candy!

At the Ooymans....

Roller Girl

Julia went to her first roller skating party on Sunday for her cousin Kate's 7th birthday! Julia could not get enough of skating. I tried to take her out first but my back about gave out trying not to fall and hold her up at the same time. So Jim ended up roller skating for a few hours. The smile was never wiped off of Julia's face the entire time, she just loved it. She is taking after her mommy already, I was quite the roller skater back in the day ;-).

This was Julia for about 2 hours, only to take a break for pizza and cupcakes

On a break, pizza and cupcakes with cousin Ellie

Happy Birthday Kate!!

Is this music old school or what, this has to bring back memories...

Pink Bike

Julia has had a new favorite pastime the past few weeks, riding her Big Wheel down the alley. There is a downward slope and since she can't quite reach the pedals the hill is perfect to get her going. Although, to get her back up the hill you have to push her all the way up and to go down you have to run beside her as a car can come around the corner and I want to be in front of her to make sure that she doesn't crash right into them. Anyway, quite a workout for mom and dad and a fun ride for Julia.....over and over and over. She asks to ride her pink bike no less than 50 times a day. Lately, I have gotten the neighbor girls to take her up and down :-), I think they are getting sick of it too though.

Coming up the hill.....

Julia is saying "moon", not "move" on her way down, she is obsessed with the moon

Pumpkin Picking

We chose one of the most beautiful days ever to go pumpkin picking! Julia had the best time, picking pumpkins, hay maze, pony rides, tractor rides, etc. She even got to wear her pumpkin hat; which she got so many compliments on the entire time she was there.

Family photo

"We're ready"...Julia's new saying

Julia found her "pumpkin"...the chosen one

pony rides

driving the tractor

Our pumpkins, taking them out to the car